| KALAMAZOO
ANTIQUE BOTTLE CLUB NEWS |
| Volume 17 Issue 6
Written By Allan C.Holden
February 2020
|
BOTTLE SHOW
PREP UNDERWAY!
I Hear That Bottle
Show Train A-Comin’!The hot topic this month will be all our important spring bottle show business. This is the 41st year for the bottle show, can you believe it? And Oh-My how the time flies by! It is time to start making our lists and checking them twice, and, that all starts this month! Here I go again, sweating it out, hoping everything gets done. But we know it certainly will, as it always has. But it will only happen when we each roll up our sleeves and do our part! The problem is, I have to be reminded of that every year. Our show’s advertising kicked off in “ Antique Bottle and Glass Collector” this month. We have a nice 1/4 page ad. The show date is Saturday, April 11th. I didn’t find our show’s listing in the F.O.H.B.C. Bottles and Extras, which is bimonthly. However, my search did turn up info on:
As most of you know, I love the TV Show, American Pickers. There is one thing about that show that drives my wife crazy! That is when after Mike Fritz agrees with a seller on a sale price, then, as he reaches out to shake the seller’s hand to seal-the-deal, he always asks, “Are we doing it?” John Pastor is always burning candles from both ends. He is like the proverbial “one-armed paper hanger.” We do miss spending time with John at our meetings. My point is, for the last few months the topic has come up about; do we continue having a special Display Room at the bottle show? Someone managed to find, in print, in a bottle publication, where our club was criticized for the way we run the show room's display competition. I can only imagine this person was hurt because he didn’t win. When the display room is open to all show-goers, who, are given a private voting slip, and we ask them to vote for the display of their choosing, how could that be any more fair?  It’s like when every American voter goes
into a private booth to vote, with a private ballot,
for the candidates of their choice, then the votes are
tabulated, “You tell me, how exactly can the Russians influence that?” I will admit, at the last presidential election, as I was about to cast my vote, out of the blue, a little Russian KGB agent slipped under the curtain and offered me a $500 Amazon gift card . . .well, how could I refuse? I was going to vote for Trump anyway! Right? So, back to the topic of Display Room, I for one, was pretty much ready so scrap the whole crazy thing. We are always short handed and the display room should be the first thing to cut-out if we are downsizing, that is my opinion. Well now, at the last meeting, we learned that we are trying to line up at least five collectors for the display room this year! Where is my wife? I just want to ask, “Are we doing it?” Well, I will support it . . . if that is possible! We simply cannot let one unhappy camper spoil it for all the others. In this life, you cannot make everyone happy, trust me I keep trying! Let me encourage each of you to be at this meeting PLEASE! This month we start to assign show positions and the food assignments. We need YOU! LAST MEETING Well, if you missed it, our last month’s meeting had an interesting twist! Once again we were bumped out of our meeting room! I honestly do not understand how or why it happened, but it frustrated me, to put it mildly. And it all happened without notice. I walked into our board room like I owned the place. As it turned out, the board room was full of ladies. The Book Reading Club! As usual I was traveling along in my normal brain-dead state of mind. Before I went around the privacy partition, I heard, coming from the room, a lady’s voice reading away . . . . “He pulled her tightly against his sweating body as they kissed passionately. She  dropped
every inhibition as she melted into his strong arms,
she was his . . .”At that point, I walked into the room sweating and panting! I had just climbed four flights of stairs . . . I must have been a sight! I could see my timing was bad by the passion in their roving eyes . . . I started to feel like the book they were trying to read, I better scram!!!!! “Oops! I am sorry ladies, wrong room!” Last summer I was in the hospital for an outpatient procedure. I was laying on a hospital bed bare-chested as a nurse was sticking wire leads onto my chest. She stopped for a moment to remove her outer scrub jacket as she said, “It’s warm in here.” I said, “My chest has that effect on most women.” You really don’t want to say something like that where they are trying to tap into a vein! I was somewhat insulted as she couldn’t stop laughing. . . . Back to the meeting. Anyway, I wandered down the hallway and found the club meeting by following signs to the meeting area, which was located right behind an on going Rolling Stone’s practice session. I showed up just a few minutes early, but not by too much. I stood in the hallway to direct any late comers. We had a good turnout at the last meeting! It was so good to hear our very special friend, Gordy Hubenet. Here are the names, as they appeared, from our distinguished patron’s list of those who attended the last meeting. Ed Nickerson, Gordy Hubenet, Tim Hayes, Steve DeBoode, Dale Roof, Rob Knolle, John Winkler, Vincent Grossi, Ron Smith, Scott Hendrichsen, Susan Anspaugh, Chuck Parker, Allan Holden.  Gordy presented another of his well-researched topics relating to early, and rare, bottles and patent medicine history. Gordy is working on a book showcasing many interesting, and perhaps some shady, dealings within the family of Clairvoyant Dr. D.B. Kellogg, from Ann Arbor. Dr. D.B. Kellogg was the originator of Kellogg Family Remedies which were sold throughout Michigan. There is no connection with the Battle Creek, Kellogg. Where did Dr. D.B. Kellogg gain his keen medical wisdom and skill? And just where did he arrive his brilliant formulas for his many remedies? He claimed it all was a Divine Revelation which he received while in a clairvoyant state. Today we would say he has a degree in “B.S.” Before his passing, Dr. D.B. passed along his clairvoyant skills to his son, who became Dr. Albert C. Kellogg who continued in his father’s practice as a Clairvoyant Physician as well as standard Medical Doctor. Both doctors were engaged in the manufacture of proprietary remedies handled by druggist throughout Michigan. In the day, anyone could receive a professional, and accurate, mail order diagnosis, and also by mail you could purchase the proper remedy for your own special personal needs.  Or, you could simply stop into the Ann
Arbor Office, where you could join hands and hear
ghostly rapping from the abyss, witness automatic
writing, and watch parlor furniture dance as if
bewitched! A few of Dr. Kellogg’s products were his Liver Invigorator, Indian Remedy, Kelloggs Magic Red Drops, Family Cathartic Pills and Kellogg’s Lung Remedy. Some really advanced science! In Gordy’s research he found some unexplained family mysteries! This family truly had some real skeletons in their closet!  Gordy showed us some of the rare Dr.
Kellogg bottles he has collected, and he displayed
some of his hand drawn bottle sketches for his coming
book! Great stuff! Thank you so much Gordy, we
certainly enjoyed every
minute!  We saw a
few nice bottles at the last meeting. Scott Hendrichsen, has a
sparkling beauty! It is an attic-mint strap-side
whiskey flask with a beautiful tooled top and very
strong embossing! It is a “Wm
HAKE, Wholesale Liquors, Grand Rapids, Mich.”
And what a beauty! A fine addition to any collection!This bottle is in a light aqua color. Adding to its beauty, it has some long stretched elongated bubbles, as well as clear twisting marks in the neck from forming the tooled top. If you had one of these in your collection, you would want to replace it with this beauty! 
Scott displayed a nice early Battle Creek medicine
bottle: “A.S.
JOHNSON M.D.Office Centennial Block, Battle Creek Mich. “ This bottle is also a sweet bottle! I call this style a paneled coffin, which are really awesome shaped early bottles! The embossed lettering is applied so the bottle has to lay on its side to read. The embossing on this one is very strong, and, the top and bottom text is arranged in an arch shape. Also, to add to desirability this bottle, it has a large A-S-J monogram. I know of a few collectors who like to collect Monogrammed bottles. Scott had another beauty but this was a tiny bottle. It was a  “FREE
SAMPLE, DR. MILE’S RESTORATIVE
NERVINE”
 The active ingredient in Nervine was bromide, chemically related to chlorine. The makers of Nervine claimed it to be, “ among the safest of effective medications to calm the nerves,” But as with many drugs, this wasn’t the case. The amount of bromide needed to sedate a person was near toxic level. Excess use of bromide led damage to the central nervous system, headache, irritability, fatigue, slurred speech, ataxia, emotional instability, tremor, hallucinations, gastrointenstinal, and dermatological symptoms. It is no longer used in medicine today, bromine is still used in pesticides, disinfectants, flame retardants, as a gasoline additive, and for swimming pool maintenance. But, hey! It’s a free sample, what could it hurt? Scott's little bottle is from around 1890, but this product Nervine is not ancient history. It was on the shelf in this form until 1975! Miles Laboratories was founded as the Dr. Miles Medical Company in Elkhart, Indiana, in 1884 by Dr. Franklin Lawrence Miles, a specialist in the treatment of the connection of the nervous system to overall health. Miles operated as an independent firm from 1884 until 1979, and as Bayer AG from 1979 until 1995. And, yes indeed, a great insecticide today is a Bayer product containing Bromide! It goes after . . . you guessed it, the insect’s central nervous system!  One more bottle for Scott; This last bottle is a ½ pint druggist bottle from Battle Creek. “WILL R. PHILLIPS, DRUGGIST, BATTLE CREEK MICH.” Based on the perfectly clear color and shape, I would guess it to be from the early 1900's. It has some scrolling grape vines with leaves framing the word “Druggist.” A very nice Battle Creek medicine. It could have contained anything the pharmacy stocked in bulk and proudly dispensed in their own special bottle!  Steve DeBoode came to the meeting with our special speaker, Gordy. Steve brought along a beautiful cobalt blue Kalamazoo Seltzer bottle. “CITY BOTTLING WORKS, C.B.W. KALAMAZOO, MICH.” I’m sure it was for sale, and based on the $125.00 price tag, I would have been all over that except I have a blue one and a green one already! They are a favorite! These bottles were made for long term use and they were used in bars, soda fountains and ice cream parlors. Seltzer is originally a German thing. It all started in the small town of Selters, (pronounced Sell-tears) which is known for its natural springs in the Niederselters district. This area became famous for its water after doctor Jakob Theodorus Tabernaemontanus touted its healing properties in 1581. Two centuries later, the town was shipping clay pots of the stuff around the world, all labeled Selters Water. Though the townspeople may not have produced the seltzer we think of today, this glorified water became a symbol of health, and wealth too, considering that only the rich could afford imported water at that time. Many of the mineral waters we think of today, like the Saratoga Spring waters, were naturally carbonated. That is why those beautiful bottles are so thick and heavy! Their contents were under pressure! I love sparkling waters like Seltzer water, Club Soda! We have a Soda Stream dispenser and I love it! There is actually a lot of science that can go into something as simple as good seltzer water! The bubble size can be determined by the amount of minerals. (Size Matters!) The cleaner the water, the less material carbon dioxide has to hold on to. Hence, if you take out all the minerals, it's hard to have fizz. This is why some of the highly mineralized Italian mineral waters really fizz!  Besides a few
Dr. Kellogg bottles, which were very cool, the bottle
Gordy Hubenet brought in that stole the show was a
beautiful, sealed, labeled, full of original contents,
“KALAMAZOO CELERY PEPSIN
BITTERS, P.L. ABBEY CO.” Also, Gordy found a wooden crate side-panel for that same product!  Kalamazoo
Celery Pepsin Bitters, P.L. Abbey Co.Awesome stuff!! Respectfully . . . I had just entered the Library building through the main entrance and was about to turn toward the stairway, when off in the distance I heard someone yell “Al.” It didn’t sink in at first, but then I heard my name again. I looked around and I saw Kevin hurrying toward me still calling “Al.” Kevin worked his way through a group of people leaving the building as he handed me a bag. He said, “Al, please give this to Chuck.” We have been good friends for a very long time. I could see on his face something was amiss, I can’t explain it, but I asked, “Is everything OK?” As he looked down, he replied, “Something is terribly wrong, Chuck will fill you in after the meeting.” as he turned to leave. After the meeting closed, Chuck announced that Nathan Siegfried, Kevin and Linda’s 30 year old son took his own life. Yes, it truly is heartbreaking. I attended the memorial service to support my dear friends at this time of loss and sorrow. No parent should have to ever go through this. Yes, It was a very nice service. Kevin’s friend, who was a minister in the National Guard, did Nate’s memorial service. Pastor Robert Barton, he did a beautiful job. He shared how Kevin had requested he not preach Hell-Fire and Brimstone. Well, at a time like this, family and friends gathered with tender hearts, need to hear the “Truth” found simply in sharing the beauty of God’s perfect Grace and Perfect Love, all which can only be found in a personal savior who is, Jesus. I truly believe that is exactly what Nathan would have wanted. Please remember this special family in your prayers. And if you have personal questions, about Salvation, I would love to help and supply you with God’s answers. Just say when . . . please. The
Meeting theme is Valentine’s Day “LOVE!”
BRING IN YOUR FAVORITE BOTTLE!
The Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club
We meet at the main Kalamazoo Library, 315 South Rose Street. We meet on the third floor in the Conference Room This meeting is February 11th. Meeting starts at 7:00 e-mail: prostock@net-link.net   Phone 269-685-1776 Web Address www.kalamazoobottleclub.org The Meeting theme is
Valentine’s Day “LOVE!”
BRING IN YOUR FAVORITE BOTTLE! But let’s focus on show business. |